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Poverty & Families
Most Americans use the rhetoric of tolerance, compassion, and understanding. Unfortunately, when I step back and look at the whole picture, I can see that issues related to a woman's place in society and family structure has become a major part of the culture war. There is a rising importance of women in the workplace and it has impacted family structure. This has increasingly challenged the assumption that the "traditional family" is the American ideal. When we look at the numbers, today 49% of families are dual-earners, and 20% are headed single, working mothers. Obviously those most in need of support are families in poverty, notably single mothers and their children. A family run by a single mother covers half of the families presently living in poverty. This situation is significantly worse for minorities. Over the last twenty-five years, women's labor market status has improved. Today more than 61% of all American women are part of the paid labor force. They have entered occupations like managerial and professional jobs in increasing numbers. Women's wages in 2001 stood at 76.1% of men's - in 1979 it stood at 63%. We need to reach 100%, and in spite of this growth, women continue to face barriers to full participation in our economy, and earn less than men in every age group. Only a part of the wage gap between the sexes can be attributed to differences in performance. Let's try to expand how we look at this. Because a woman's earnings form an important part of her family income, wage discrimination has serious effects on a family's standard of living. It has been calculated that the average family with a working woman loses $4,229 per year, which adds up to $500,000 over her lifetime. The poverty rate for a single mother family could be cut in half if the wages of women were equaled to those paid to men in equivalent occupations. It should go without saying that job segregation disadvantages women, who still work mainly in clerical and service jobs. Even in the professions, women are disproportionately found in certain occupations, usually those with lower pay. Based on projections of job growth, the occupations that are expected to add the most jobs consist of those held disproportionately by women, and that more than a third rank near the bottom on average earnings. In our modern society, there are economic incentives that encourage women to work outside the home. As I've mentioned, dual-earner families are much better off economically than single-earner families; on average, a wife adds $22,000 to family income - though is she were as man, we'd add the $4,229 she loses simply because she is a woman. In spite of all the yearning for the good ol' days of father the breadwinner and mother the full-time housewife, it is unlikely that the trend toward the increased participation by women in the labor force will be reversed. I'll go further: who are our poor? A majority are women and their children. Urban men of color are also overrepresented, as are immigrants, many of whom are found in the cities. Most poor adults are the working poor. These are people who don't earn enough to escape poverty. Generally, poverty is defined in monetary terms based on the official poverty line: Those below are poor; those above are not. But the official poverty line is an ineffective indicator of poverty. Today, a mother with two kids would have to be earning $7.94 per hour ($2.09 per hour more than the minimum wage) to earn the 2007 poverty-level income of $16,600. She would also require access to free child care, remain healthy, have healthy kids, keep a minimum inventory of household items, and carry no debt. Based on this official definition, some 35 million people in this country, or 1 in 8 Americans, lived below the poverty line in 2005. If I were to include individuals and families living up to 25% above the poverty line, we'd add another 12.5 million people, which totals about 16.5% of our population, or 1 in 6. Today, about 28 million workers, almost a fourth of our civilian labor force, earn less than $8.70 per hour. This is less than the poverty level income for a family of four. Many of these workers are striving to support their families on these wages. There are social circumstances that makes living difficult and escape from poverty unlikely for the working poor. Just like everyone else, poor people sometimes make bad decisions, sometimes they are dealt a raw deal, but more often than not, the combination of personal choices and events beyond their control interact to trap them. They have no margin to accommodate. And the combination of hard work and low pay are only part of the problem for low income workers. It is virtually impossible to live on their earnings. For example, wages for low income jobs don't rise much over time, yet housing prices do, reflecting different forces at work in these two markets. Poverty is a result of low wages, not from lack of work effort. Though we can take an issue and expand upon it to see the "how's" and "why's" of it, we don't necessarily find ways to "solve" and manage these things. However, I support social policy that promotes the development of our fundamental resource - our people and particularly our children. I believe should be a crucial part of our national political agenda. I believe our country needs a family policy that supports all families, including their work and caring responsibilities. We must create and pursue a social and political agenda that addresses poverty; specifically the nation's real needs for economic security and fair dealing. |
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